5/4/14

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter(Scripturesfor today's Mass)Audio for homily

(This weekend at the Saturday 5:00 and the Sunday 9:30
Masses we welcomed children to the altar for their First
Communion. You'll see that my homily addresses them
and their guests as well as the whole community.)

What an amazing story, boys and girls!

These two followers of Jesus are going home to Emmausand they’re sad because just a few days before,they had seen Jesus die on the Cross.

They were so sad that when Jesus joined them,walking along on the
road,they didn’t even recognize that it was him!Does that seem hard to believe?Is it hard to believe that Jesus could be right there with them,talking to them, and they didn’t realize it was him?I don’t think that’s hard to believebecause I think it happens all the
time!

Jesus is always with us.• He’s at the foot of you bed in the morning,waiting for you to wake
up.• He sits next to you when you’re having your breakfastand he’s right beside you on your way to school.• He spends the whole day with you whatever you’re doing.• He’s so close to youthat when you help someone else along the
way,you’re helping Jesus.• He’s so close to youthat when you hurt someone else along the way,you’re hurting Jesus.• And he’s so close to youthat when you need a friend to talk to,he’s already listening for what you have to say.

But like the two guys on the road to Emmaus,sometimes we’re so sad, or so busy, or so happy, or so selfishthat we don’t even see Jesus walking along with us.He’s there but we don’t recognize him, we miss him.And it’s the same for me, too, girls and boys.And it’s the same for all the grown-upspraying with us here this
morning.We believe that the Risen
Jesus is everywhere,but we go for days or weeks or months or yearswithout seeing him,right by our side.

But do you remember what happened in the story in the gospel?As the two men walked along,even
though they didn’t recognize Jesus,he was talking to them, teaching them,speaking to their hearts.And when they got home they invited Jesus to come in for dinnerand he sat down at their table with them.And the gospel tells us that he took
bread,he said the blessing,he broke the bread,and he gave it to them.And when Jesus did that, as he had done for them before,they recognized him – they knew it was Jesus!But then, as quickly as they had come to recognize Jesus,he vanished from their sight.

And then the two guys remembered everything Jesus had told themas they’d been walking together with him all day.Because they had recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread,they were able to see him more clearly in the rest of the day.

We come to Church on Sundays, often after a whole weekof missing Jesus, not seeing him, in our day-to-day lives.We come here to listen to Jesus speak to us in the scriptures,just as he spoke to the two men in the story we just heard.And right here, at this altar, at this table,we remember how Jesus took
bread,said the blessing,broke the bread,and gave it to his friends at the Last Supper,on the night before he died.

And Jesus will take bread
here this morning,and bless it,and break itand give it to you and to all of us in
Communionso that we, too, can come to know Jesusin the breaking of the bread.

This is a great story for us to hear this morning, boys and girls,as you receive Communion for the first time.AND, it’s a great storyfor us older girls and boys to hear this
morning,to remind us of how often we miss Jesus in our daily lives,even when he’s right beside usand to remind us of how important it isto come to the table with
Jesus,not at the end of the day, but at the end of one weekand the beginning of a new week,to listen to Jesus speak to us in the scripturesand to meet him in the breaking of the bread.

Your parents and families and friends have made a big deal of this day,boys and girls, your “First Communion Day.”I hope and pray they’ll do everything they canto make sure that you come back next Sundayfor your Second Communion Day, and then your third,and your fourth, and then...well, you have a lot of Communion days ahead of you.

Somebody older drove the car that got you here today,girls and boys, but really, it was YOUwho brought a lot of people to Church today,to hear the Lord’s Word and to meet himin the Breaking of the Bread.

May what we celebrate here today open our eyesto Jesus walking alongside us, every day this weekand may the Lord Jesus who walks by our sidebring us back to his table next Sunday.

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic?

The best place to start is always one of your local Catholic churches. Drop in some Sunday and see what's going on. Then you might speak to the pastor or someone on the parish staff about how they can help you and respond to your questions.